


In the Valley of the Shadow of Death, Thou Art With Me

by Meatball42



Series: Howl to the Heavens [2]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Adam is Saved, BAMF John Winchester, Castiel as God, Gen, Hell, Lucifer's Cage, POV Adam Milligan, POV John Winchester, Protective Michael, angel stuff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-06
Updated: 2016-02-06
Packaged: 2018-05-15 19:51:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5797606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meatball42/pseuds/Meatball42
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I’m in Hell, after trying to help the angels kill the devil, no thanks to my so-called family, with no end in sight. And from the last few close shaves, I’m pretty sure Lucifer is a better strategist than the guy on my side, so optimistic view right now is that if I die in here, I’ll just stay dead.</p><p>Like I’d be so lucky.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In the Valley of the Shadow of Death, Thou Art With Me

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is set in the same universe as my story [Howl to the Heavens](http://archiveofourown.org/works/5797561), but it can be read alone. If you don't want backstory, all you need to know here is that Godstiel decided he needs to perform acts of goodness and mercy to make up for all the, you know, thousands of angels and humans he killed in like _one episode_.

_Adam_

It turns out, when you’re in the middle of a never-ending game of cat and mouse in an endless maze of fire and brimstone and you can’t ever sleep and you can’t ever stop, time gets a bit funny. Every second is the worst adrenaline high of your life, and it just never stops. We’ve been here a long, long time, and I have no idea how long we still have to go. Except, according to Michael, it’s forever. And that’s the optimistic view.

And yeah. By Michael, I mean the archangel Michael, who asked permission to possess my body so he could kill his brother, the archangel Lucifer, who was at the time possessing my half-brother Sam’s body. I’m pretty sure I’d be in shock right now if I wasn’t, you know. Dead. And running away from a psychotic archangel who wants to spend forever torturing me.

But Michael is protecting me. I mean, guy’s got some problems, let me tell you. I was in his head, or he was in mine, so I guess I know him pretty well. It felt sort of like standing inside a star, except he didn't let himself burn me at all. He explained to me, sometime in the last few decades since we’ve been on the run from Lucifer, that his father (yeah, that’s God. This is my not-really-a-life now) commanded him and his brothers to worship humanity, so he would never hurt me. This said while sharpening the sword he plans to use to kill his brother.

Like I said, serious problems.

So, summing it all up, I’m in Hell, after trying to help the angels kill the devil, no thanks to my so-called family, with no end in sight. And from the last few close shaves, I’m pretty sure Lucifer is a better strategist than the guy on my side, so optimistic view right now is that if I die in here, I’ll just stay dead.

Like I’d be so lucky.

 

_John_

Hell is nothing like I remembered. No more endless arrays of chain-webs, no more abysses of souls screaming in endless suffering. The Angel-turned-God escorting me walks through a few miles of your typical office block hallways, up and down indistinguishable stairways, across dull, beige waiting rooms. And everywhere is empty, except for the few times our path intersects with lines of people that seem to stretch into eternity. Every time we pass one, his hand wraps around my forearm like an iron cuff, and as much as I want to rip away from the perversion, I have to be grateful.

I don’t know how long we travel, or how long it actually takes, Earth-time. I can tell we’re getting deeper; the lights flicker more and more often, the spick-and-span surroundings are littered with cigarette butts, and I can hear dripping pipes and a scratch like rats in the walls. At long last, once the hallways have become concrete with the musty smell I remember from decades-empty basements, we come to an immense iron door.

“I cannot enter with you,” the former angel tells me. He looks at me like he’s reading my mind. “I will be ready to close the door once you return. Do you know how to use that?”

I clench my hand around the crystal. “I never forget a weapon.” I stare right back at him. He weighs me for a second, calculating my chances, then turns to the door.

I need him. I carefully keep my mind clear of the desire to use this weapon on the monster before me, rather than the one I need to hold off.

“It will not stop him for long. You must make haste. I will try to open the door close to your destination.” He places both palms against the door and a small section begins to burn white, just tall enough for me to pass through.

He steps back, and his eyes flash between gold, black, and a color I can’t even name.

“There is more than one individual who deserves to be let free.”

I wait, but he has nothing more to say. I walk through the door.

 

_Adam_

He’s close. Michael is wary, scouting carefully before we climb or turn any corners, or step through any portals of fire in the walls. I watch behind us, trying to keep my breathing quiet despite the endless running. The Portal references stopped being funny years... well, a long time ago.

Out of nowhere Michael hits me in the chest, and I fly through the scalding air until I smash into a rock wall a dozen yards away. With no more warning, I cover my eyes.

An immense crack and a massive burst of heat signify Lucifer’s appearance. I curl up on the stones and stuff my knees into my eyes so I can smash my hands into my ears, but I can’t block out the sounds of the fighting. A vibration intense enough to shudder the rocks tells me Michael has let his true form come through the illusion he created for me, and all I can do is wait.

There’s a hand on my wrist. I scream, but it’s not hot. Something drags me around a corner, and I call out for Michael.

“Shut up, boy!”

It’s human. I open my eyes in shock, and then scramble to my feet. “Dad!”

He smiles, or scowls, or something. His face is so covered in ash and sunburn I can’t tell. “Which one of them is the devil?”

“How are you he--”

“No time to explain, son! Which one!”

“Lucifer looks like fire. Michael looks like sunlight. That’s what Michael said, at least.” Or, that’s what it sounded like. There was actually a lot more monologue about stars and lamps and grace and shit, but it looks like I could get out of here, and I am not screwing that up.

“Get behind me.” He shoves me behind him, eyes already locked on the stone protecting us from the battle. Suddenly, I remember my half-brother Sam saying I was lucky not to have known this man.

Right now, there’s nobody else I’d rather see.

He shoves his head out from behind the wall and screams. I nearly smash my head into the wall backing away. He just looked at the archangels when they weren’t in their vessels. “Dad!”

Eyes screwed shut, he steps into the open and holds up this pale crystal. It glows, and the battle sounds die down. I have time for three heavy breaths before Michael’s illusion, a dark-skinned man with thick hair, races around the corner and drags me away, holding me up as I trip over the stone ground.

“We don’t have much time,” he says, terse as always.

“No, wait-- dad!”

“He’ll follow.” Michael snaps. He shoves me somewhere, and all of a sudden I’m on a concrete floor, and it’s dark, and colder than I’ve felt in forever.

“Adam?”

My eyes won’t adjust, but I know that voice. It’s my half-brothers’ angel friend, the one who pulled me from the ground. “Castiel?”

“You are whole.”

No idea how to respond. To any of this. “Yeah… Michael… Michael!” I sit up, look at where I came from. There’s a shining rectangle in the dark, but no Michael or John.

“You must rest. They will come if they can.”

I want to argue. I want to go back for them, or tell Castiel he better get his ass in there and help. But I know better than anyone that there’s nothing anyone could do who’s not already inside.

“I have faith in your father,” Castiel says. He sounds even weirder than I remember, but somehow, sympathetic. Maybe it’s Lucifer and Michael’s fighting messing with my hearing. “Winchesters often come out more or less safely when they should not.”

“Like me?” I ask sarcastically. Since the moment Sam and Dean claimed me as their brother my life has been complete hell-- ha ha.

“Yes,” he says after a moment. “Like you.”

I want to roll my eyes, but they hurt too much. I crawl away from the door instead, every inch of my body aching. “Shouldn’t they be here by now?”

“Yes.”

Not a talkative guy.

A minute later, my father bursts through the door, clothes smoking, the crystal gone dark. “Adam, cover your eyes!”

I’ve barely obeyed when the vibrations shake the ground. Lucifer’s scream comes through the doorway, echoing down the hallways behind us, and Castiel and Michael are at the door. I can’t look at what they’re doing, but their cries are nearly as loud as Lucifer.

I have no idea how long it lasts, but all of a sudden everything goes quiet. My ears are ringing, but a familiar hand grabs my elbow, helping me to my feet. Michael’s illusion wavers, but I can still see his single permanent expression. It took me years to realize that it’s caring, not angry. Which, again, you can tell he’s got serious problems.

“We’re safe?” I laugh. I’ve thought we were doomed for so long, I can’t even believe it.

He smiles, by which I mean, he looks slightly less murderous for a moment. “I will bring you and your father back to Heaven, now.”

John grabs my shoulders, and I lean back into him-- out of exhaustion, of course, nothing sappy. I don’t expect a Lifetime Movie ending. But I was just pulled out of hell… Maybe Heaven will be a bit better, this time around.

Michael wraps one arm around both of us, then looks back. “Castiel. I will see you soon. And I will expect an explanation for your current… state.”

Castiel’s eyes flare, and I shiver. For a second, he reminded me of Lucifer. “Yes, brother.”

And then, we’re in Paradise.


End file.
